Our acquisitions policy is largely determined by our exhibition programme, which in turn is put together in response to requests from overseas galleries and museums. These exhibitions tend to be concerned with current activity focussing on young and emerging artists. For this, as well as for budgetary reasons, purchases are usually made nearer the beginning of an artist’s career rather than in mid-career or later, when prices become significant. The Collection includes acknowledged masterpieces such as Henry Moore’s early carvings and Lucian Freud’s ‘Girl with Roses’ and prime examples of the work of many of Britain’s greatest 20th century artists, including Matthew Smith, WR Sickert, Paul Nash, Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Graham Sutherland, Stanley Spencer, Anthony Caro, Philip King, Eduardo Paolozzi, Peter Lanyon, Roger Hilton, David Hockney, Bridget Riley, Patrick Caulfield, Peter Blake, Richard Long, Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossoff, RB Kitaj, Bill Woodrow, Tony Cragg, Anish Kapoor, Damien Hirst, Mona Hatoum, Richard Deacon, Gary Hume, Rachel Whiteread and Douglas Gordon.

Accessibility
As the collection has no permanent gallery or display it is not always possible to view works. If you are interested in seeing works from our collection please contact the Collections Manager, Diana.Eccles@Britishcouncil.org

Copyright
Photographs of the work in our collection are available for use in catalogues or other material, usually supplied in digital form. Requests for such material and a copy of our fees should be addressed to Diana Eccles. We do not own the copyright on works in our collection and permission must be obtained from the copyright holder, and copies of that permission submitted before any photographic material can be released.

Copyright for a number of artists is handled by other organisations. The largest companies in this area can be contacted directly:

The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS), The Bridgeman Art Library and the Tate Gallery.